Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Molding Young Minds

This past weekend, I took a break from "normal" life to chaperone the senior high school spring church retreat, otherwise known as Festivus. I believe I've mentioned a time or two that I'm a Huddle Leader (aka mentor) for the ninth graders at church and since I only see these kids once a month, I wanted to spend a little more time with them in hopes of getting to know them a little better.

We were scheduled to leave the church building at 4:40, but I got there around 3:15 to help get the registration tables set up and also organize and set up the pizza tables (we had pizza prior to our departure). The kids started arriving around 4:00 and after eating and then cleaning up our mess, we were off to Camp Lee in Anniston, Alabama. I didn't ride the bus to camp, but instead rode with my friend Margaret Anne (who drove) and a couple of our other girlfriends. It was nice to have some time with these friends before the weekend got underway.

I honestly don't know what time it was when we arrived at camp; but, after arriving, we spent time getting set up and us adult girls spent time moving cabins because we originally bunked down in the wrong cabin. Come to find out, the cabin that was assigned to us only had one working hot water heater so there were two showers available for about 60 girls. The evening ended with a worship session and then we were assigned groups for the Saturday sessions and by the time it was all said and done, it was after midnight before I got to bed. As you can imagine, I was pooped. Unfortunately, the girls from one of the other churches bunked down in our room and so we were separated from our girls the whole weekend. What's worse is that the girls who were in our room were so stikin' rude and loud and I was not happy about it.

Saturday morning we started with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. I had gotten up around 5:00 a.m. (out of habit) and taken a hot shower and then laid back down until time to get up. We had a morning worship session and then broke off into our groups for three other activities/study/discussion times. We had lunch and then some free time where I napped until I was woken up by a call from my mother (thanks, mother!).

Saturday evening, there were games, dinner, and a final worship session and then a bonfire to end the night. I opted out of the bonfire and hit the bed early instead. It worked out well because I was able to get to sleep before the loud girls came into our room.

Sunday morning after breakfast, we had our final worship session for the weekend. The guest speaker for the weekend had wrapped up on Saturday evening; so, Sunday morning was singing and then a wrap up by our own youth minister. After that, we packed up, cleaned up and hit the road towards home.

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad I went. I got to know some of the kids better which was great, and I am looking forward to continuing to get to know them throughout the coming months and years.